Track star Noah Lyles is doubling down on his strong opinions of the definition of a “world champion.” After torching the NBA with his literal interpretation of global competitions being the only standard for a world champion title, Lyles is reveling in his newfound agitator status.
“To be honest, I’m just glad we’re having the conversation,” Lyles said during an interview with FloTrack. “It’s been underlying for so long but no one really wanted to talk about it. With everybody actually saying things about it, now you have dialogue. Of course, maybe there will be opinions that will change and maybe there won’t, but at least we’re having the conversation.”
The Noah Lyles Effect
Lyles generated a mixed bag of opinions and commentary from his statement. Some active NBA players took offense with Lyles’s perspective and were vocal with their distaste of the suggestion of their league’s prize not being a global one. Kevin Durant posted on social media, “Somebody help this brother,” with his Phoenix Suns teammate Devin Booker adding a face-palming emoji to express his sentiments.
Aaron Gordon from the 2023 NBA World Champion Denver Nuggets posted, “Whatever… I’m smoking buddy in the 200m,” as a playful challenge to the comments. Lyles added during the FloTrack interview, “everybody wants to take a shot at the champ but you have to handle the high schoolers before you get to me.”
Lyles feels that he has checked the temperature globally and found that while most of the world understands his perspective, the U.S. rejection is a testament to Americans’ singular view of themselves.
“It’s funny, you look at my comments, you’ll have people in the U.S. versus the world,” Lyles continued. “Everyone in the world is very much on my side and the U.S. is usually leaning towards the opinion of the NBA. But that just goes to show how we view ourselves in the U.S. and I’m just glad we’re having the conversation.”
Noah Is Not Alone
Ironically, not all in the NBA feel like the players, and the topic was brought up years before Noah Lyles from one of the NBA’s most respected minds.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said something eerily similar close to 13 years ago. Popovich coached the national team from 2015-2021, capturing gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“It doesn’t make sense for an NBA team to call themselves world champions,” Popovich said during a 2010 interview with The Boston Herald. “I don’t remember anybody playing anybody outside our borders to get that tag. Isn’t that true? I keep waiting for somebody to tell me I’ve missed something.”
Noah Lyles put a spotlight on the NBA’s branding of its titles, but will it effect any change is the real question.
